Separator



March 23, 1.937.V v. M. PYATT SEPARATOR Filed Aug. ll, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet l MNI March 23, 1937. v, M pYATT 2,074,515

SEPARATOR Filed Aug. ll, 1934 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 23, 1937.

V. M. PYATT SEPARATOR Filed Aug.' 11, 1934 s sheets-sheet s Patented Mar. 23, 1937 PATENT FICE 2,074,515 sEPARA'roR Valdis M. Pyatt,

Great Falls, Mont.

Application August 11, 1934, Serial No. 739,483

Claims.

This invention relates to separators and particularly to a separator designed for separating gold from foreign matter, as for instance, black or magnetic sand.

The general object of the invention is to provide a separator of this character which has been found particularly effective, which is very portable, simple in construction, and which embodies the use of a series of shaking screens whereby the ne gold is separated from the coarser particles of gold and foreign matter, and which further includes the use of one or more pneumatic separators whereby the coarser particles of gold are separated from dust and from like particles of foreign matter which are heavier than the gold.

A further object is to provide means including a series of screens operating as a unit, and mechanism whereby the screens may be given a rotary movement akin to the movement given to a 20 miners pan, and provide means whereby the coarser particles of gold and foreign matter may be discharged over riles and the gold caught in these riles.

Another object is to provide the uppermost of the several screens with knives or blades against which the material is projected to thus break up any clods which may have formed and also detach the fine akes of gold from the particles of sand.

Other objects have to do with the details of construction and arrangement of parts as will appear more fully hereinafter.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:-

Figure l is a vertical sectional View somewhat diametrically of the mechanism embodied in the present application;

Fig. 2 is a detail fragmentary section on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the shaking screens or riled troughs and mechanism intimately allied therewith;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view thru one of the rifled troughs;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5 5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the lowermost shaking screen section showing in plan view the means whereby the screen is given a longitudinal or lateral oscillation and also showing the means whereby the riifled troughs are given a longitudinal reciprocation.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary vertical section thru the screen supporting casing showing a plurality of` screens in place;

Fig. 8 is a perspective View of the crank shaft 55 whereby oscillation is given to the troughs.

Fig. 9 is an elevation of the feeding rolls and the frame supporting them.

Fig. 10 is an enlarged vertical sectional view through the hopper of the feeding rolls showing the feeding rolls in elevation and showing scrapers engaging the feeding rolls.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1, I Il designates a supporting frame which may be mounted upon a truck if desired for any transportation. The supporting frame includes longitudinally extending beams II, and swingingly supported from these beams I I is a casing or boxing I 2 designed to supported a plurality of screens. This casing is supported by means of links I3 which extend down to the bottom of the casing and which at their upper ends are swingingly connected to eye-bolts I4. The lower ends of these links I3 are also connected to eye-bolts I5 which pass vthrough angular brackets or lugs I6 as shown most clearly in Fig. 3. It will thus be seen that the casing is supported for swinging movement either laterally or longitudinally. Preferably the casing is downwardly and forwardly inclined. As shown in Fig. 7 the side walls of the casing are grooved to receive the screen frames IB which support the screens proper. The screens I9 and 20 and ZI are relatively coarse screens. Above the screen I9 the casing is partially closed by a cover 22 which extends over the forward end of the screen rearward nearly to the rear end and atits rear end is provided with a downwardly and forwardly extending delector plate 23. An opening 24 is provided between the rear end of the cover 22 and the rear end of the casing in which material is discharged from a hopper 25, it being understood that this hopper is illustrative of or symbolizes any means whereby the material may be directed into the uppermost screen. The rear end of the uppermost screen compartment is provided with a plurality of downwardly and forwardly extending knives which, as illustrated in Fig. 2, are spaced from each other by intermediate blocks. The forward edges of these knives extend downward and forward and the purpose of these knives is to break up and disintegrate material thrown against the knives and detach the ne gold from the foreign matter. The forward end of the screen space is closed by a wall 21, but there is a side opening 28 on this forward end which discharges through a chute 29 into a rile box or chute 30, as shown in Fig. 3.

The screen sections and 2| are each formed with a lateral opening adjacent the front wall, the opening 3| discharging in a direction opposite to the opening 28. This opening discharges into the chute 32 which in turn discharges into a riilie box or trough 33. Below the screen 2| there are disposed screens 34, 35 and 36 of gradually decreasing mesh. These screens discharge at the front of the box, the screen 36 having its frame prolonged, as at 31, so that the screens 34, 35 and 36 will all discharge into a conduit 38, whose purpose will be later described. The screens 39, 40 and 4I are of gradually decreasing mesh and the frame for the screen 4I is also prolonged, as at 31a and discharges into a pneumatic separator, as will be later described.

The bottom of the casing or box I2 is designated 42, and this bottom extends downwardly and centrally and is provided with a central discharge opening 43 discharging into a fine gold receptacle 44. This receptacle may be in the form of a drawer or the like.

For the purpose of giving a longitudinal and lateral swinging movement to the gang of screens, I have provided the mechanism shown most clearly in Fig. 6. Mounted upon a supporting frame I8 rearward of the casing I2 is a transversely extending shaft 45 driven in any suitable manner, as for instance, by a belt pulley 46, and having intermediate its ends the crank 41. Mounted upon this crank is a connecting rod 48 which at its forward end is pivotally connected to the lower end of the swinging casing I2, as by means of a bolt or like element 49. It will be seen from Fig. l that the forward end of this connecting rod 48 is beveled at 58, and that the bolt 49 carries upon it a nut 5I whose upper surface is rounded. The purpose of this is to secure a completely flexible connection between the connecting rod 48 and the screen casing, which connection will positively shift the screen casing forward and rearward but will permit the screen casing to be oscillated in a horizontal plane. For the purpose of oscillating the screen in a horizontal plane I provide the extremity of the shaft 45 with a crank 52, and mounted upon the frame I8 is a bell crank 53 which is connected to the crank 52 by the rod 54. From one arm of the bell crank extends the link 55 which is pivotally connected to the screen box or casing I2 at its forward' end. By this means the rotation of the shaft 45 is translated into a lateral reciprocation of the link 55, this link being pivotally connected at 55 to the forward end of the screen frame. It will be obvious now that as the shaft 45 is rotated the screen frame will be given a longitudinal reciprocation and a lateral oscillation which will cause the screen frame to move in an approximately circular path and give to the screens an action very similar to that given by the miner to his separating pan. This action, as regards the uppermost screen compartments will cause the discharge of coarse material through the openings 28 and 32 on to the riflie troughs 38 and 33, finer material capable of passing thru this screen being shaken upon these screens and gradually passing therethrough. Material passing through the screens I9 and 28 and 2l, but incapable of passing thru the screens 34, 35 and 36, will be discharged into the conduit 38 while the material incapable of passing thru the screens 39, 48 and 4I will be discharged by the extension 31a of the lower-most screen frame into the pneumatic separator. The very fine material which has passed through all the screens and which is very fine gold dust, powder or flake gold, will collect on the bottom of the screen box or casing I2 and be discharged into the drawer 34.

It is necessary to give the riflie troughs 38 and 33 a longitudinal reciprocating motion so that the material will pass downward over the riflles 51 contained in said trough, as shown in Fig. 4.

The bottom of the trough may be lined with cloth if desired having a nap designed to catch the gold particles or mercurymay be placed in the trough or other means used to hold the particles of gold which may pass down from the riilles, heavy foreign material passing down over the tops of the riles being eventually discharged.

For the purpose of reciprocating these riflle troughs I mount upon the supporting frame the transverse bar 58 which projects out in opposite directions beyond the frame and at each end carries two pairs of downwardly extending swinging rods or links 59, as shown most clearly in Fig. 3. These at their lower ends connect to eye-bolts 68 passing through transverse braces 6I which support the troughs 38 or 33.

Projecting downward from the trough 33 is a pin in the form of a bolt designated 62 and connected with this pin is a link 53 which at its upper end is pivotally connected to an arm 64 extending out from a vertical shaft 65, which at its lower end carries the rotary arm 66, whicharm is connected by a` link 61 to the bell crank 53. It will be obvious from Fig. 6 that the reciprocation of the connecting rod 54 will oscillate the shaft 65 and that this will cause a longitudinal movement of the trough 66. This movement is communicated to the opposite trough 38 by means of the connecting rod 38 which is pivotally connected, at 69, to the two troughs, this connecting rod passing through two slidably mounted bearings 18 sliding in a guide 1I mounted upon vertical members I8a of the frame I8, as shown in Fig. 5. The rod 68 has sliding movement through the eyes or bearings 18, and at the same time may bodily rise or fall as is necessary to accommodate upward or downward reciprocation of the troughs 33 and 38. The middle portion of the rod 68 is forwardly offset, so as to accommodate the enlarged rear end of the conduit 38.

The screens 39, 40 and 4I discharge into a housing 12, as shown in Fig. 1, in which are disposed two force-feed rollers 13 and 14, which may be of any suitable material and which are constantly rotated in a direction to discharge material in the housing downward into a wind chest 15.

A deflector plate 16 carries the material to these rollers 13 and 14. These rollers prevent air from being discharged upward through the housing 12 and act to forcibly feed material downward into the wind chest or trunk 15. The trunk 15 is shown as circular in form and opening into this trunk or chest below the rollers 13 and 14 is a nozzle 11 extending tangentially from a fan casing 18 within which is located a fan 19. This fan may be of any suitable character and driven in any suitable manner. The trunk or housing 15 is partially divided into two sections by a deilecting plate 88. On one side of this plate re- Vmote from the nozzle 11 at the bottom of the housing is a discharge opening 8| discharging into a trough, drawer, or other receptacle.

On that side of the trunk or housing 15 adjacent the nozzle 11, is a take-off pipe 83 which leads downward and forward to the lower end of an elevator housing 84. From the upper portion of the trunk 15 leads a dust pipe 85 opening into a discharge pipe 86 wherein is disposed a constantly driven exhaust fan 81 for the purpose of carrying off dust from the trunk or housing 15.

It will be seen that with this construction the material which is passed through the lowermost screens is discharged downward by the rollers 73 and 14, past the blast of ai: proceeding from the nozzle 1l, and that fine gold will be forced over the inclined deflecting plate 88 into the gold discharge portion of the housing 15, and drops down through the discharge opening 8| into the receptacle 82, but that heavier material either entirely foreign to the gold or to which the gold is still clinging, will drop downward past the air blast and entering the pipe 83 will be carried downward to the boot or housing of the conveyor 84.

The conduit 38 at its rear end is enlarged, as at 85, to receive material from the screens 34, 35 and 36. This conduit 38 extends forward and then discharges downward into a second pneumatic trunk or housing 'l5a constructed in the same manner as the housing 15. At the entrance to the housing 86 two feed rollers I3EL and '|4a are provided of the same character as heretofore stated for the rollers 13 and 14.

The material is then discharged downward onto or toward the delecting plate 88 and the air blast from the nozzle 89, which is generated by the fan 90, is discharged against this material. The lighter particles such as flake gold will be carried over the deector plate 88 and discharged downward into a receptacle 9|. The heavier particles which have not been blown outward by the blast of air, are discharged downward from the deilector plateinto the hopper-shaped extension 92 and discharged into the conduit 83 and are carried to the boot 84 of an elevator. Leading from the upper portion of the trunk 86 forward of the rollers 8l is a dust pipe 93, which also discharges into the exhaust pipe 86. Thus fine dust is collected from both of the housings 15 and 15a.

The magnetic sand with a small amount of free gold and with gold flakes adhering to the sand, is carried upward by the elevator 94 disposed within the trunk 84 and is discharged for further treatment which will act to entirely separate the magnetic sand from the gold.

It is to be understood that I have provided a heater (not shown) whereby the material before it is treated is thoroughl;r dried and then discharged into the hopper 25, thus preventing the grains of sand from sticking to each other and rendering it possible to secure a complete separation of the gold from the fine sand and other foreign matter by means of the shaking screens and the pneumatic separators as disclosed.

The force feed rollers 13 and 14 and |3a and Ma have two purposes, one to keep the air from passing upward through the machine instead of going through the fine and flake gold separators and passing out through the pipes 85 and 93, and the other is to cause a regular or uniform feed of the material from the screens into the air treating or separating portion of the apparatus. A further object is to pulverize the small lumps that might be stuck together in roasting. These rollers 'I3 and 14 are preferably made of hard metal and are driven by pulleys or any other suitable means. One roller of each pair has a strong coiled spring 94 at each end of the roller to permit the rollers to separate in case hard material that cannot be crushed is passed through, and at all other times will hold the rollers tight together. These rollers are preferably provided with scrapers 95, as shown in Fig. 10, which operate to and fro as the roller is rotated. The Scrapers run close to the rollers to keep them clean and prevent air from escaping through the hopper. The Scrapers, of course, extend the full length of the rollers. The rollers and Scrapers are for the purpose of securing a regular feed of the material, not too fast and not too slow, but to feed all the material which the machine can handle so as to assure yardage.

The riiles 54 shown in Fig. 4 are made of rods or pipe and can be spaced from three quarters of an inch to two inches apart. The blanket or burlap is laid on the bottom of the trough and the riles laid on the blanket. The object of the riilles is to catch nuggets too large to go through the machine and also catch any fine gold that might stick in the coarse sand or gravel and be knocked olf after leaving the screens I9, and 2|. The object of the trough supports is to carry away waste material, andthe object of the riilles is to catch the waste material.

The baille 23 above the uppermost screen is to stop the sand or gravel that might be knocked or thrown by the knives 26 so that this will not be thrown over the screen and also to knock oi` fine sand or gold from the gravel or stones. These knives alsoI break up any lumps that might be stuck together in roasting. The material passing down -the hopper chute at a 45 angle, strikes the knives with quite a lot of force. The jar or shock will knock the gold or other metal loose from the material and will not go through the screens. Furthermore the knives in the front end of the screen compartment balance the forward end of the screen,-without the knives it would be a little heavier at the outlet end of the screen.

It will be noted that the spouts 29 and 32 discharge from the sides of the screens at the forward ends thereof. These spouts might extend from the ends of the screen but by having solid ends in each screen compartment the material is knocked and jammed more than it would be with screens which are open at the forward extremities.

The reason for having two screens 20 and 2| in the second compartment, is that if only one screen were used in this compartment it would be overloaded and let a lot of ne material go over into the spout 32 that should go through the flour and flake gold separators. By providing another screen with a coarser mesh, I divide the load of material on the screens 28 and 2| and get away from the loss of ne material.

It will be seen from Fig. l that the pipe 85 in the first unit of flake gold separator has a damper 96 so that this damper may be closed or almost closed when ake gold is present in the material. The damper may be open when not running for flake gold so as to blow out waste that is lighter than gold. Flour gold is re-claimed on the flour gold screen 4| and in drawer 44. Flake gold is blown out of ne gold over plate 8|) into spout or drawer 82, while the fine gold goes from the copper plate 80 into spout 83. The coarse gold and magnetic sands are conveyed from the screen 36 to unit 'l5EL by spout 38. Dust and waste material lighter than gold are blown out through pipe 93. Furthermore the plates 80 and 88 will be capable of rotating adjustment as by means of the levers 91, as shown in Fig. l. This adjustment will be made according to the lightness or heaviness of the material.

This mechanism has been found extremely satisfactory` in treating sand containing gold, and it has also been found satisfactory in treating clay bearing gold, known as Robbers Clay.

While I have illustrated certain details of con- CJ i struction and arrangements of parts, it is to be understood that the showing in Fig. 1 is largely diagrammatic, that changes may be made in the details of construction and arrangements of the parts without departing from the spirit of the invention, and that in actual practice the various parts are arranged very compactly so that they may be mounted upon a truck.

What is claimed, is:

l. In a separator of the character described, a casing having a laterally disposed opening at its forward end, a screen forming the bottom of the casing, a series of downwardly and forwardly inclined knives at the rear end of the casing, the spaces disposed between the knives having their edge surfaces conforming to and disposed below the edges of the knives, means for suspending the casing for free swinging movement in all directions, and means for giving a longitudinal reciprocation and a lateral reciprocation to th casing.

2. In a separator of the character described, a casing, a series of screens therein successively decreasing in mesh downward, means for suspending the casing for free swinging movement in all directions, a shaft having a crank thereon, a connecting rod between the rear end of the casing and said shaft, the casing being pivoted to the connecting rod, a bell crank lever having operative connection to the forward end of the casing, a second crank on the shaft operatively connected to the bell crank lever, the casing above two of the screen sections having laterally opening apertures at their forward ends and opening in opposite directions, chutes extending from said apertures in opposite directions, oppo- -sitely extending riiiled troughs disposed to receive the discharge from the said chutes, means for suspending the said troughs for free swinging movement, means for longitudinally swinging said troughs including a connecting rod between the troughs, a vertical crank shaft having an arm operatively connected to one of said troughs, and having an arm operatively connected to said bell crank.

3. In a separator of the character described, a casing, a plurality of screens therein successively decreasing in mesh downwardly, the casing at its forward end above certain of the uppermost screens having lateral discharge openings, the screen below the said uppermost screens having forwardly discharging openings, means for suspending the casing for free swinging movement in all directions, means for giving a rotatory movement to the casing, riilied troughs receiving the discharge from the uppermost screens, an air trunk receiving material discharged from the lower screens, force feed rollers disposed at the entrance end of said air trunk causing the discharge of materials thereinto but preventing the discharge of air therefrom, a deflector upon which the materials are received, a blower having a nozzle discharging into the air trunk across the upper end of the delector, the air trunk having a. discharge opening beyond the deflector, and means for receiving the lne material that is discharged therefrom, the trunk on that side of the deflector adjacent the fan having a discharge opening for the coarse materials, and a dust pipe leading from the air trunk and having therein a suction fan.

4. The combination with a screen, of an air trunk approximately circular in cross-section adapted to receive material discharged from the screen, rollers disposed at the entrance end of the air trunk causing the discharge of material from the screen into the trunk but preventing the discharge of air from the trunk, a pivoted deflector within the air trunk less in width than the diameter of the trunk and upon which the materials are received from said rollers, a blower having a nozzle discharging into one side of the air trunk across the upper end of the deiiector, the trunk having a discharge opening on the other side of the deflector from the blower and the trunk on that side of the deflector adjacent the blower having a discharge opening for coarse materials, and means whereby the deector may be shifted around its center to thereby control the neness of the material blown over the deflector and the coarsest of the material dropping from the face of the deector.

5. In a separator of the character described, a casing, a screen therein, the forward end of the casing above the screen having a lateral discharge opening, means for giving a continuous bodily rotatory movement to the casing in an approximately horizontal plane whereby to discharge material remaining on the screen laterally through the discharge opening, a laterally extending discharge chute attached to the casing at the opening thereof, a riiiled trough suspended below the chute receiving the discharge therefrom and extending at right angles to the length of the screen, means for suspending the trough for longitudinal swinging movement, and means for giving a longitudinal swinging movement to the trough comprising a vertical shaft having a crank arm having linked connection with the trough and a crank arm operatively connected to the mechanism for giving a rotatory movement to the screen.

VALDIS M. PYATT.

Cil 

